Rindert Jagersma, Helwi Blom, and Ann-Marie Hansen
Goldmines or Minefields? Private Libraries and Their Documentation (1665–1830)

In: Rindert Jagersma, Helwi Blom, Evelien Chayes, and Ann-Marie Hansen (eds.), Private Libraries and their Documentation, 1665–1830. Studying and Interpreting Sources (Leiden: Brill, 2023), pp. 1-17.

Series: Library of the Written Word (LWW), volume: 112.
ISBN: 978-90-04-54295-2 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-90-04-54296-9 (e-book PDF)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004542969_002
Link: https://brill.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9789004542969/BP000011.xml
About the volume
Libraries: Worldcat


Abstract:
Scholars have long acknowledged the importance of studying private libraries and their documentation to understand intellectual and cultural history, especially for the period prior to the rise of public libraries and the mechanisation of book production. Private library catalogues and other book lists have indeed proven to be an essential resource for academic research at least since Daniel Mornet published his seminal article on ‘Les enseignements des bibliothèques privées (1750–1780)’. Following the publication of Mornet’s work, the importance of this type of material has been increasingly acknowledged by researchers and bibliographers from around the world. The academic study of both the source material itself and the book collections it documents is however hampered by a number of factors. These include the great variety of source types, the permeable boundaries between them, and as a result, the difficult task of distinguishing them, let alone applying clear terminology to identify them. Other complicating factors include difficulties in locating and accessing sources, as well as the nationally oriented focus of many studies.


This article is Open Access available
Link to volume: https://brill.com/edcollbook-oa/title/64633
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The article is a product of the MEDIATE project. Publication of this volume in open access was made possible by the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017 for Humanities.


Illustration:
Vignet met interieur van een bibliotheek, Josua van Solingen, naar Laurens Jacobsz. van der Vinne, 1727 – ca. 1750. Rijksmuseum RP-P-1937-1768.